Therapeutic Spa Day

Posted on Tue Sep 29th, 2026 @ 2:42pm by Commander Cressida Vale MD & Petty Officer 1st Class Alina Tevaris & Lieutenant JG Elen Rell

1,517 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Pilot - "The Gate"
Timeline: 2 days after Zandaryi attack

It had been just two days since the Zandaryi attack, and in that time, Cressida Vale had been unhappy.

As if her broken rib wasn’t enough, the damage to her hand had been severe enough that it needed surgery to fix it. However good J.R. was, she was still out of commission for a few days, during which time she felt useless. Sickbay was full of casualties that needed help. Needed her. And she couldn’t do anything about it. Just as bad, the things she’d like most to do to feel better were off the table. No exercise. No martial arts. No climbing.

It was hard for her wife to watch.

So Alina found herself at the door of Cressida’s best friend, asking for help.

“I just can’t bear to see her like this,” she said, pouring herself and Elen a cup of ginger tea prepared from root she’d harvested that morning. “She’s gotten herself hurt before but never so bad that she’s in a slump like this.”

Elen Rell grimaced where she sat cross legged on the floor, her eyes on Alina before she looked away, thoughtfully. "Well Cress's...always running around. She's action woman. Of course she's feeling...out of sorts..." she sighed, slowly, before breathing in the scent of the ginger. "Rock sugar's in the orange shaped...bowl...box...thingy..." she gestured in the general direction of it. In case she wanted it sweetened. "On a scale of one to ten, how down in the waste disposal is she?"

"A solid seven," Alina answered as she put a small amount of sugar in her cup. "Eight if she's feeling really antsy."

Elen's eyes widened and she let out a soft breath, sitting back. Her eyes followed Alina's movements, the set of her shoulders. And then she nodded. "Right, so now she can't do it, we need to make it feel like her not doing much is chosen!" she declared and stood, to pace the room. Her hands moved as she though, almost as if she was picking ideas out of the air...she wasn't, not really, but the movement of her hands helped her mind focus right now, pushed through the worry. "Afternoon tea! Followed by a pedicure," she said and turned to look at Alina. "Proper Afternoon tea as well. No...shortcuts."

"We wouldn't dream of shortcuts!" Alina agreed, her own mood suddenly boosted by the fantastic idea. "She does love a spa day. Pedis, and maybe also getting our hair done, or massages? A proper pampering, just without being rough on her hands!"

"And the food! Dainty, easy to eat with one hand, food..." Elen said and shook her head, with a small smile. "Tasty and decadent but not...you know...enough for her to worry about how *bad* it is..."

"Once she's better, she'll be wanting to pull double duty in the gym anyway," Alina said with a laugh. "I have a holodeck program of her favourite spa, if you can arrange the menu?"

"Me?" Elen's eyes widened and she grimaced, before she finally chuckled. "Yeah...okay, but I might need to ask someone for advice. I mean I've always loved the idea of an Afternoon Tea but I've never...had one..." she admitted the last with a shy smile.

"Outsourcing to professionals is never a bad idea!" Alina declared, raising a finger in the air. "It's why you come to me when your lemon balm is ill and why I come to you when the solar lights are flickering. If we tried to solve those problems ourselves?" She pantomimed an explosion with her hands, while making various boom sounds. "The real important thing is that Cressida is distracted from her pain, and feels loved."

"Well, for that...we need to replicate some nice dressing gowns too," Elen said as she looked at Alina, giving a solemn nod. "I...heard about how bad things were in sickbay. And how brave she was."

Alina nodded. "I don't think it's ever been quite that bad. Too many people, medical staff and patients, didn't make it out. I think her nightmares have started again." Then she smiled. "But you know her. Years from now she'll be telling people how she wrestled intruders with a broken hand."

"Oh she will," Elen said and looked at her, giving a solemn nod. "With kung fu kicks and everything. And then she found a way to open the outer airlock and vented the place, holding onto the table with her broken hand as her good one was beating up people..." she raised an eyebrow and then grinned, showing the teasing. Cressida never exaggerated, but she was good at painting such a vivid picture that Elen sometimes wondered if she was secretly part Q and no one said anything.

"You know, you should write some of this down," Alina suggested. "Because I'd read that book. And if you need, I can help you get her likeness rights," she added cheekily.

"Oh, I am just going to knit her a superhero jumper," Elen said with a solemn nod. "With a cape to go with it. It will be...well...amazing," she winked before she let out a breath. "The High Priestess of Sickbay."

"She always loved that nickname," Alina said. "So. How does tomorrow, say, 1600 hours sound? Do you get off duty early enough tomorrow for that?"

"I...maybe? It's all over the shop but I can take a few hours and then go back on after," Elen said with a confident nod, meeting her eyes and holding them. The smile was back, confident and warm with knowing that she was doing something to help.

---

“Okay,” Cressida said as she sat comfortably, in a fancy, flowy blue dress, picking at the few remaining canapés from their earlier meal while a holographic cosmetician massaged her feet with an exfoliating gel. “This…this is nice.”

“We thought you’d approve,” Alina said from the seat on her left, in an equally chic pink dress, her little toesies being brought to heaven by a hologram. “The Afternoon Tea was Elen’s idea.”

“So. Good.” Cressida said as she lay her head back.

Elen smiled as she looked at her, her eyes shining. She had dressed in a magenta dress, off the shoulders, with a split that allowed access to her own feet. "I went to Counsellor Montoya, asked for some assistance. She told me exactly what to replicate and how long to steep the tea and everything. When in doubt, go to the source. I thought who would know more about Afternoon Tea than her." She winked and sat back, sighing. "And I think we *all* deserves the pampering. My feet have not seen anything except Starfleet issued boots for too long...and I swear the socks itch. They are replicated with extra itch."

“That’s part of the pattern code,” Cressida said, eyes closed and enjoying the pampering. “It keeps you from feeling drowsy while you’re working. You can’t get tired on the job if your feet are itchy.”

"Joke's on Starfleeet, I sometimes don't even wear boots," Elen grumbled, but with a small, playful smile. "Any idea how quickly you can climb a Jeffries tube barefoot? Faster than in the boots...or maybe it's just me. Could be just me. Oh! I finally got a water shower rather than a sonic one. Glad I did it before all this..."

“And you’re planning on installing the next one in my quarters, right?” Cressida asked. “Right?” she jokingly added.

"Hey, you two already have a king size bathtub with actual water...and massage shower head," Elen said with a small smile. "Having a water shower as well? Now that's just greedy, girl..."

"Perks of Command," Cressida replied. She stuck her tongue out playfully at her best friend, and then took a sip from her fancy teacup.

"Besides," Alina added, "the king size tub is lovely but I don't think we've once used it for getting clean." That made Cressida struggle to not spit out her tea. "You alright babe?" Alina asked, grinning.

Elen rolled her eyes at them, throwing a rolled up clean napkin in Alina's general direction. "You can't shock me with your coupledom. You may try, but you will never ever make me blush."

"She does like to try," Cressida said after finally getting her tea down. "But seriously, thanks you two. This week has been shit, but this has been lovely. We should do this more often."

"We should," Elen said without any hesitation, giving a firm nod. "Tea and tiny delicate things to eat is always fun. Oh! Maybe next time, beach holodeck? Make it into a party..."

“After this comes off,” Cressida agreed, gesturing to her cast. “Sand, sun, swimming, tiny food. And most importantly, the people we love, all together.”

END

Lt. jg Elen Rell
Engineer

Petty Officer 1st Class Alina Tevaris
Botanist

and later

Commander Cressida Vale, MD
Chief Medical Officer and Second Officer

 

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